The move enables the French automaker to support its sales growth in Europe while making a better use of its engine plant in China, which is operating under capacity.

At the beginning of the year, it received two unexpected orders for more than 4,000 engines from PSA in Europe, said Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Automobile Co., a 50-50 joint venture between PSA and Dongfeng.

To fill the orders, Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen started shipping the engine by air this month while continuing to transport it by sea and railway.

The joint venture expects to export up to 90,000 engines to Europe in the first half of the year.

The engine for export is a 1.2-liter three-cylinder turbocharged direct-injection gasoline engine with maximum power of 100 kw (134 hp) and maximum torque of 230 Nm (170 pound-feet).

The engine is produced only at Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen¡¯s engine plant in the central China city of Xiangyang and PSA¡¯s engine factory in Douvrin in northern France.

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen started exporting the engine in July 2017. Through last year, it shipped roughly 53,000 engines for PSA¡¯s vehicles made in Europe.

Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen, headquartered in the central China city of Wuhan, can produce to 1 million passenger vehicles and an equal number of engines for the Peugeot and Citroen brands.

This year, the joint venture¡¯s vehicle and engine production continues to operate well below capacity because of stagnated sales.

For the first two months, its vehicle sales dropped 5.9 percent year on year to 46,614 vehicles.